


Finding the Devil

by Darkphoenix37



Category: 8MM (1999), Joaquin Phoenix - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Romance, Slow Burn, Violence, or maybe not, porn industry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:21:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25373062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkphoenix37/pseuds/Darkphoenix37
Summary: Willa Matthews is an ex-nun and looking for her little sister’s killer.  During her investigation, she meets a very interesting porn shop worker with blue hair and a penchant for heavy flirting.  Can Willa survive the evil underground of the sex industry or will she become another victim?
Relationships: Max California/Original Female Character
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

FINDING THE DEVIL

Chapter 1. 

Willa stood off to the side as the detective explained to her parents how her missing sister died. 

Asphyxiation. Not to mention several stab wounds to her abdomen. She also had severe abrasions to her wrists and ankles, which indicated that she was in restraints. 

‘What did you get yourself into, Lilly?’ Willa thought to herself. 

She wasn’t surprised it had happened, Lilly ran away from their parent’s house six months ago and apparently romanticized the idea of living off the grid. And that was also the time when Willa left the monastery. 

She had become a nun at 18 to follow her beliefs. And let’s just say that her beliefs were gone. Kaput. Something happened before Lilly’s disappearance that caused her to question her path and the belief of God. 

Now at 25, she was listening to the awful details of her sister’s death. No, her sister’s murder. 

One of the details that stood out for Willa was that Lilly had engaged in sexual intercourse before she died. 

‘Why would she have sex with a man she clearly couldn’t trust? None of this makes sense.’

Hours later Willa had Lilly’s suitcase that was left behind in the seedy hotel room she had lived in. The parents did not want anything to do with the suitcase so they had Willa take it home and store it.  
As she walked out of the precinct with her parents behind her, she couldn’t help but question their thinking. They just wanted to forget what happened? Forget Lilly?

“You aren’t even going to look through it?” Willa asked. 

“Why? What good will it do? Lillys’ dead and we have to move on,” her father said. 

“Even if there could be clues to who killed her in this suitcase?”

“No! Just let it go, Willa! We can’t handle this anymore,” her mother sobbed as she got into the car. 

“Seriously? Dad?”

“Let it go. Nothing can bring her back,” her father said as he walked around to the drivers’ side and got in. 

Willa sighed and walked to her own car several feet away. 

“Just isn’t right!” she yelled as her parents drove past her. 

After arriving back at her apartment, Willa immediately sat down and opened her sister’s briefcase. There was the usual: clothes with holes in them, dirty socks and underwear, cigarettes, hairbrush and packs of condoms. There was also what looked to be a business card. It was frayed and stained. Luckily, Willa could make out a name: Dino Velvet. 

‘Who is Dino Velvet?’ she thought to herself. She turned the card around:

DINO VELVET  
GOD OF UNDERGROUND PORN  
HOLLYWOOD, CA / NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Porn? Was Lilly mixed up in porn? Isn’t there something in that world called Snuff films? 

‘I saw something about that on the news once,’ Willa thought leaning back into her sofa. 

Noticing a black plastic bag wedged into a pocket of Lilly’s bag made Willa sit up quickly. Grabbing it she noticed the lettering on the bag. 

“Stans of Hollywood. Adult Entertainment at its finest,” Willa read aloud. “Well, there’s my first clue.”

After finding the address in the phone book, Willa packed a small bag and decided to head out. 

She remembered doing some charity work with the monastery in that area years ago and honestly, she didn't want to get out of the van. But, that was way before her little sister was murdered. And she wanted answers. 

If her parents weren't going to fight to give Lilly any justice, she sure was going to. 

As Willa drove out of the safety of her neighborhood she couldn't help but have a slight fear of not knowing what she was going to encounter. Or whom for that matter. 

***Author's Note***  
Sorry for the short chapter. The next ones will definitely be longer.  
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!


	2. Chapter 2.

Chapter 2.

Finding the store was easy, getting out of the car and walking into it was not. The adrenaline of going Gung Ho to find her sisters' killer pretty much dissipated the moment she pulled up to the Stans of Hollywood porn shop. She knew she was going to totally stand out and not in a good way.   
'They'll probably be able to tell I was a nun. Or at least have no reason for being in that store,' she thought as she looked at the store and watched people coming and going. She recognized the black plastic bag that people carried out of the store as the same one her sister had in her suitcase and wondered what could possibly be in those bags. A small part of her was extremely curious and a larger part of her definitely didn't want to know. 

"You can do this. Just keep your eyes averted and do not look or engage with any of the creepy customers," she said to herself as she got out of her car and walked to the door. She took a large breath and pulled the door open and was immediately met with people turning their heads to see who the fellow freak was. 

A cold shiver crept down her spine as she looked around her at all the disgusting memorabilia in the store. There were tons of magazines with nude women and men in provocative poses, tons of videos, and to her shock; sex toys that were shaped in both male and female genitalia. She definitely didn't want to touch anything in this store. But she had to speak to a worker or someone in the store to see if they ever saw her sister in the store. 

Her eyes locked on a man sitting by cash registers reading a nasty book while he laughed to himself. Walking slowly to him she took in his appearance more. He had lots of tattoos, blue hair which was in some kind of mohawk, and what looked to be leather pants. 

'Interesting,' she thought as she came up to the counter and cleared her throat softly. 

Green eyes looked up from the book and looked her up and down slowly. "Well hello there little lady, need help looking for a dildo, or maybe you're more interested in a G spot vibrator," he said standing and smirking at her intensely. 

Willa's face flushed to what she assumed would be beet red. She had never in her whole life been talked to that way and by a man with absolutely no shame, it seemed. 

Steadying herself Willa spoke up, "Actually I just wanted to know if you ever seen this girl before," she asked as she held up a picture of Lilly.

The man took the picture and studied it. "Yeah, I've seen her before. Months ago." 

"Did she say anything to you? Was she with someone?" Willa inquired. 

"She had a man hanging around her. I think he was trying to pimp her out to some of the customers here. I kicked them out because this store doesn't do that shit. At least not so sloppily," he said giving her the picture back.

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean 'what do I mean?' He was trying to pimp her out."

"I mean what do you mean by, sloppily."

"We do things with a little bit more finesse here and not so out in the open. Plus she looked strung out. Why? What's she to you?" he asked leaning over the counter. 

"She was my sister."

"Was?"

"She was murdered. In her suitcase was a bag from this store. Do you know the man who she was with?"

"No, I don't," he said sitting back down and picked up his book. "I make it a point not to remember every person who comes through those doors."

"Yet you recognized my sister? Did she talk to you? Did she look like she was in danger?"

"No. As I said, she looked strung out. There's lots of junkies on the streets around here. It's nothing new."

"My sister wasn't a junkie!" Willa practically yelled then lowered her voice as she noticed some of the customers looking her way. "She wasn't a junkie," she repeated more softly.

The man seemed to show compassion as he leaned forward. "I'm sorry about your sister but there's really nothing I can do to help you. Let the police do their jobs."

"The police don't care about my sister, just like my parents." 

The man looked her over again and finally said: "You could always try the underground places. Of course, it will be dangerous for someone like you. Or for someone who looks like you."

"What does that mean?" 

"Very beautiful and has no business dealing with those kinds of people. I'll help you out."

"How?"

"I can take you to some places. But understand, these people don't take kindly to young women asking questions about dead girls. They aren't to be trusted."

"I don't trust you. I don't know you."

"The name's Max California doll, and you," he asked standing up. 

"I'm Willa Matthews."

"I can show you around tomorrow night late. Around 2:30. Meet me here," he said as he motioned for her to move aside. 

Willa noticed some pretty annoyed customers behind her waiting to make their purchase. 

"Sorry," she said under her breath as she moved around them and walked to the front door. She made a quick glance back to Max who winked at her as he helped the customers. 

'I hope I won't regret this,' she thought as she left the store.


	3. Chapter 3.

Willa was anxious the rest of the day waiting for the early morning to arrive. Was she really going to do this? Go to only God knows where with this California guy?   
She had to take the chance if it would give her any insight or clues about her sisters' murder. Luckily, she purchased some pepper spray after she left the porn store for just in case. She didn't know who she was going to run into and if she would need to defend herself. 

She sat in her car in front of the store and watched the clock. She couldn't help but constantly look around her. It was dark, it was quiet and it was unnerving. Hearing a door slam she looked up and saw Max California locking the door to the store and stopped to light a cigarette and threw her a wave with a smirk on his face.   
She stayed in her car and waited. 'How are we going to do this?' she asked herself as she watched Max walk to her car and motioned her to roll down her window, which she did.  
"I didn't think you would show up," he said exhaling a large cloud of smoke into the cold night air.  
"I want answers," she replied back to him.  
"Ok. It might be a better idea if we take a taxi or a bus to this area I'm taking you to. You don't want your car to get tore up or stolen by the people who prowl the streets there."  
"Um...ok? Good idea," she said rolling up the window and got out of her car. She doubled checked her car after she pushed the locked button at least five times.   
"Follow me. We can get a taxi better over here," Max said as he motioned for her to follow him. 

She sat in the taxi and watched her surroundings as the atmosphere changed drastically. It was getting darker the further they drove. And it wasn't because it was early morning. She noticed them passing several women walking out in the streets in very skimpy clothing and watched some of them get into darkened cars. All the while Max was talking about his band that didn't get far and how long he had been working at Stans of Hollywood. Willa never really engaged in the conversation and didn't ask him any questions.   
Her heart was pounding more and more fierce as the taxi finally came to a stop and max helped her out.   
"I'm fine," she said removing her arm out of his grasp.  
"Relax. If they think you are with someone they won't bother you. Or think you are looking for work," he said lighting another cigarette.   
"Those are going to kill you," she said looking at the run-down building she was following Max into.   
He looked at her and smiled wide, "Don't worry about me, sweetheart. I've been smoking since I was a pre-teen and I haven't died yet."  
Ignoring his statement she asked, "What is this place?"  
"Hell."  
"Excuse me," she asked as her head whipped around to look at Max.  
"It's called Hell. That's literally what it's called. Full of porn peddlers. Anyone willing to share and sell the deepest, darkest and most vile of sex."  
Willa stopped walking and stared at the door as it opened slowly and a creepy man with piercings all over his face and a, was that a dog collar, around his neck. He took one look at Willa and laughed loudly.   
"Bringing fresh meat Max," he asked opening the door wider for the two of them.   
"Fuck off Larry. You know I don't do that shit. Besides she's with me," Max said putting his arm around Willa's waist which caused her flinch and stiffen up immediately.   
"Shame. She's looks good. I bet she tastes good too," Larry said eyeing Willa as she was led into the house by Max.   
What she saw inside made her blood run cold. 

There were multiple young women sitting on couches, looking very worse for wear. They couldn't be older than twenty. All of them. There were also big burly men wearing leather masks standing around just waiting for something to get out of hand. 

'Looks like everything is already out of hand,' she thought as Max led her to another doorway that led to a basement. She stopped in her tracks and looked up at Max worried.  
"It's ok. Down here is where the serious shit is. You can show your sister's picture to some of them. If they say no, then leave it at that. Don't push. They won't like it."

Down in the basement was even worse than upstairs. There were several vendors selling pictures, videos, magazines and she found out by Max, themselves. 

Willa slowly walked up to a female vendor who had dozens and dozens of pictures of naked women and men tied up and in other disgusting positions. She also noticed some pictures of what looked like children.   
'Hold it together Willa. Just ask if they've seen Lilly and get the heck out of here,' she thought to herself as she approached the woman who sure looked rough. 

"Excuse me, ma'am. Have you ever seen this girl?" She asked holding up the picture of Lilly. 

The lady barely glanced before she said, "No. Haven't seen her. If you aren't buying then don't bother me."

Max piped up and loudly said: "Look at the damn picture, Lori."

The woman scowled at Max before repeating: "Haven't seen her. Now get lost."

"Let's go ask someone else," Willa said walking past Max and to another table to show the picture. 

Over the past fifteen minutes, Willa had almost everyone in the basement if they had seen Lilly. But she got the same answers: Never seen her before, or, Don't care.

Max occupied himself talking to another vendor while Willa noticed a man sitting in a corner with a small table with a briefcase opened with some pictures in them. 

"Excuse me, sir. Have you ever seen this woman?"

The man eyed her up and down before glancing at the picture. Willa saw a flash of recognition cross his features. 

"No. I haven't seen her. Get the hell out of here with that shit. Women who come into this world only want two things. Money and death."

"You've seen her before. You look like you recognized her," Willa pressed. 

The man jumped up out of his chair and got into her face. "I said get the hell out of here or you're dead meat."

"Whoa! Back up man," Max came out of nowhere and pulled Willa back, "Calm down! She's just asking questions."

"She doesn't need to be here asking any kind of fucking questions. Get her out of here before she gets a taste of the real world."

"Come on," Max said tugging Willa with him.

"No! He recognized her! Who was she with? Who killed her?" She screamed at the man as Max practically carried her out of the basement and to the stairs.

"Calm the fuck down! I told you not to start some shit with these people. Stop! Please!" Max shouted at Willa as he pushed her up the stairs. 

"He knows," she said running up the stairs and past the young girls and out the door. She had to get fresh air and get away from all this black sickness before she puked. 

"Hold up," she heard Max yell after her as she got to the road and crouched down to catch her breath. 

"You ok?" he asked. 

"He recognized her. How else can you explain his reaction to being questioned about her?"

"You've got to keep your cool. Don't give them a reason to be suspicious. Of course, I'm sure they are now. You can't come back here now."

"I wouldn't want to. It's absolutely disgusting. All of this, it's disgusting," she said standing back up.

"It's just the underworld of sex. It's not that big of a deal. You act like this is all new. It's been here for a very long time," Max said ligting his third cigarette of the night. Or maybe it was his fourth. Who can keep track with this guy. 

"I've never seen this stuff before. Those young girls up there could have been my sister. Maybe she was here at one point."

"If she was here then she got here on her own volition. Larry was just screwing with you. No one brings these girls here. They show up. It's all for money."

"You would have to be pretty desperate to come here for money."

"Or maybe she just liked sex a lot."

"What's to like about sex?" Willa asked glaring at Max.

"You serious? What are you a virgin or something?" Max laughed to himself as he pulled out his cell phone. 

After Willa didn't answer or even laugh, he looked back up with a straight face. "That's it, isn't it? What are you a nun or something?"

"I was."

"No shit! Wow! That's hard to believe with you look."

"How I look?"

"Yeah. You're damn hot."

Willa tried to hide her blush and gave it up. It was dark outside to cover that up. So she decided to fidget instead. 

"Can we get back to my car so I can get back to my hotel?" she asked. 

"That's what I'm doing sweeetheart. I'm calling a cab," Max said dialing the service as he looked Willa over. 'A freaking virgin? Who would have thought?'


	4. Chapter 4

The taxi ride back to her car was a silent one. And she preferred it. Not only was she still reeling from what happened but she had let her guard down in front of a stranger. What he a stranger still? He helped her with no compensation given. She tried to give him a $100 dollar bill for his trouble but he wouldn't take it. Said, "It's my pleasure to help out an innocent young thing like you."  
This guy sure liked to make her feel uncomfortable. But, if she was being totally honest with herself, he was rather attractive for a man. Especially since she's never been attracted to any man before in her life.   
Well, that's not entirely sure, she had a crush on a neighbor boy when she was ten. He had blonde curly hair with aqua-colored eyes and his name was Bryan. Thinking back to that time where she would hide behind a tree and watched as he played kickball at the school field made her laugh to herself. Which caused Max to notice. 

"What's so funny?" he asked smirking down at her. 

"Nothing. Nothing at all," she replied looking out the window. "Are we almost back to my car?"

"Can't wait to get away from me, huh?"

"No! No. It's not that. I just.....want to go to sleep."

"Not really a night owl are ya?"

"It's not night. It's almost five in the morning."

"Aah," Max said opening the window to light his cigarette. She lost count how many he had smoked just the few hours she had been with him.

"How did you come to work at a porn store? How did you come to know those people," Willa asked Max while emphasizing the words 'those people.'

"Well, I came to Hollywood to hopefully get a record label with my band."

"You have a band?" she asked genuinely curious.

"I did. We broke up. Luckily I was already working at the store, so I didn't lose my job when I tried to break into the mainstream music world," Max said sounding forlorn. 

"What was your band called?" she asked.

"HardSpank," he said while smiling with pride. 

Willa tried damn hard to contain her laugh but found she couldn't. She let out a loud laugh that seemed to startle the cabbie. "Hey!" he shouted, "Keep it down!"

"Sorry," Willa replied hiding her face but still laughing, laughing at a medium volume now. After a few minutes, she looked up at Max who was smiling broadly at her. 

"You have a great laugh. I'm glad I found something that makes you laugh. Even if it's at the expense of my defunct band," he said taking a drag off his cigarette. 

There was a few moments of actual comfortable silence between them before Max spoke up, "We're here!"

The cab pulled up to the Stans of Hollywood store and Willa was glad to see her little car still sitting there, still in one piece. 

She got out and made a beeline to the car before Max stopped her by tugging on the elbow of her jacket. 

"Listen, there are other places you can go to ask about your sister. But judging after tonight, you might be blacklisted from them. I think the word will definitely get out about a young woman hanging out with me asking questions about a missing girl. And then getting riled up and making a scene."

"I didn't mean to make a scene. It wasn't my intention to get you in trouble or anything," she said fishing out her keys and unlocking the car door. 

She sat down in the driver's seat and looked up at Max. "If you can maybe ask around, you can get answers. Maybe, If I'm not with you, you know, not cramping your style, they will answer your questions."

"I'll definitely give it a try," Max said pulling out a cigarette. 

"Jesus! How many of those have you smoked these past few hours?"

"I can usually knock off an entire pack a day. It's not easy for me to quit, I've been smoking since I was twelve."

"Wow! Your lungs are probably nothing but tar now."

"I doubt it! And even if it did, know would notice or care. I have no family. It's just me out here."

"I care," Willa said immediately regretting it. Stammering she said, "It's.....It's just that you're young and you seem very smart. You don't need to get cancer."

"I'll be just fine," Max said leaning into the open door and grinning. "You gonna give me that picture of your sister or what?"

"Yes," Willa said taking out the picture from her pocket and handing it to Max. 

He made it a point to touch her hand as he took the photograph. There was an immediate feeling of electricity between them, which made Willa move her hand out of his grasp quickly and turn away. 

"Thank you," she said while buckling up her seatbelt and waiting for Max to move so she could shut the door. 

"You don't have to nervous around me. I won't bite you unless you're into that sort of thing," he said moving away from and shutting the door while he strutted off with a smirk.

'I don't think I can get used to this,' Willa thought as she started her car.


End file.
